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Today we broach a touchy subject: reprinted tarot, oracle, and Lenormand cards. First, let’s discuss what they are. Reprints are a nice way of saying counterfeit, or not from the original artist and publishing house. That means that, somehow, a manufacturer found a way to duplicate the art and reprint it cheaply, often without the lovely embellishments and original guidebook. Sometimes, they will offer a link via a QR code with a digital duplicate of the original guidebook. For example, in the picture below, you can see the reprinted version of The Faceted Garden oracle deck. It has the QR code on the bottom. The featured image on the blog post shows a reprint of the Terra Volatile tarot deck. The cards and box are of a higher quality. I did not know this deck was a reprint at all! There are some incredible fakes out there!
Reprints are offered at cheap prices because you are not paying the artist or the original publishing house for their contributions. Therein lies the problem: we are purchasing knockoffs that do not financially benefit the original creators. Next, let’s discuss why someone would offer them at all knowing this information about reprints.
The first, and likely most common, reason a company may offer these is because they did not know that reprints even exist. Those in the organization may have believed that this is common and normal, much like purchasing Great Value versus name brand items. This happens to be the case here at Arizona Bay. If they did know, I cannot speculate further on the intentions of another organization with any certainty, but it is likely because cartomancy decks are frequently purchased items and are often drop shipped at great prices.
One motive that arises may be obvious—to make a profit. That means, depending on their personal views on markup, they can make a large profit relative to the purchase price for the organization and given the popularity of these items, the sales should be more frequent when compared to less popular or bigger ticket items they may offer. These are both good for business depending on the goals and values of the organization. After we had learned the truth, we had a moral conundrum on our hands—do we keep them up or take them down?
Initially, they remained on Arizona Bay because I had taken a personal hiatus from growing the business. As any of our followers know, I am on a healing and spiritual journey. This meant that, for a time, I had to step away and prioritize other things in my personal life. During that hiatus (and prior), we honored ALL requests from any artists for us to remove the reprints. After all, that is the right thing to do. I continued to ponder our next steps with this particular problem over my personal leave. Financial access to spiritual tools is a serious issue for many. Official tarot, oracle, and Lenormand cards often START at $20 and can go up to over $100. So, is it moral to offer these reprints to enable greater access to these tools?
It may not be to some, because in the end, the art has been reprinted and the artists are not profiting from their work. On the other hand, I understand poverty and the desire to gain access to spiritual tools. There are many ‘life hacks’ to gain access to things like candles, herbs, and such, if you are willing to take such routes. For example, some may get these items from a dollar or other discount store. However, this doesn’t really exist for things like tarot, oracle, and Lenormand decks. Such as life, this issue is not so black and white. This was not the only consideration, either.
Many internet-based stores utilize drop shipping if they want to start small, dip their toes in and generate capital while growing the business. Why? It requires a very low initial business investment. Then, as the organization grows, they can seamlessly move over to working with wholesale suppliers. We currently use vendors that drop ship for this very reason.
I had a dream, but not the funding to back it. Yes, there are business loans, but not everyone can get them. Let’s be honest, the American Dream has many more hurdles for those without wealthy family ties and without good credit. As many of us know, poor or middle of the rope credit is not a moral failing nor is it necessarily a result of being irresponsible. However, credit lenders do not care. So, what can you do as a business owner? Take baby steps, build the dream from a different starting point. As you grow your income and hopefully raise your credit score, you can then opt for these other forms of investment. From there, you can begin to purchase from reputable wholesalers and likely negate the need for drop shipping.
As a business owner who tries to be fair and see various perspectives before making a decision, I decided to write this blog, add a banner to my website, and include a notice on each product offering page. The purpose of this is to explain why we still offer them. We are not looking to disguise the fact that they are reprints, nor are we adding outrageous markups. To be clear, we will ALWAYS remove items that have been requested to be removed. Furthermore, we will NOT add anymore reprints. We will only add Rider-Waite style tarot decks that have unique designs or coloration, as RW is public domain. That is my personal promise to our customers and artists. Yet, what about the buying power of the consumer?
As the consumer, it is in your hands to decide to make a purchase. Often, we think about quality and price. For some, that is enough. For others, we may look at sustainability and morality, etc. In any case, YOU have the power to decide with YOUR dollar. If you do not feel comfortable purchasing reprints, we SUPPORT you! We believe in your freedom of choice. As for me in my personal life, once I realized that I had purchased reprinted decks, I made a promise to myself that as my income grows, I will also purchase the official decks and donate the reprints to those in need of these spiritual tools.
To conclude this blog post, I would like to offer some tips so that you do not fall for tarot or other reprints if you are absolutely against buying them. First, if they come from Temu or Ali, they are 98% likely to be reprints. Second, if you purchase them on Amazon or Etsy, there are many vendors selling reprints. Sometimes they offer them at insanely cheap prices, and you will find reviews that mention quality or size differences that are inconsistent with the official decks. Other vendors will sell them at full price as if they are official cartomancy decks.
In every case, you may check the country of origin for shipping or look at how long it takes to receive them. If it takes a week or 2 or more, they are likely reprints coming from international vendors. Third, educate yourself on the origin and artist(s) that created the cards. Some only officially sell them on their private website and/or Etsy/Amazon stores. Other creators may choose to sell them through US Games, Llewellyn, Hay House, and others. If there is ANY question, ALWAYS reach out to the creators on their social media or website. They will gladly tell you anything you need to know.
I hope this post has been informative and helped you to understand why we have made our current decision to carry them. We understand (and accept with it love) if you choose not to buy reprinted cards from us. I think what is most important about this blog is that I can use my voice to educate and help consumers by empowering them to make buying decisions from a place of truth and transparency. We don’t want you to be scammed by others or to feel scammed by us. We care about our customers and only want to bring a little bit of light to their lives.
Thank you for reading!
UPDATE: We have now removed all of the reprints. We have left things that are now public license or that are, as far as we know, to be the authentic items. We do understand that reprints can be cost effective for some. There are many who still sell reprints. If you choose to buy reprints elsewhere, please don’t pay as much as you would for the original item. These reprints are wholesaled VERY cheaply. Don’t pay high prices for them.
